Hallo, cherished viewers,
and welcome to
this week’s edition of
Good People, Good Works
highlighting the story
of six-year old Dmitri
(or Dmi for short)
Rosescu of Regina,
Saskatchewan, Canada.
He began
a fund-raising project
in the spring of 2011
to help pay for medicines
needed by baby
Emma Predinchuk
of Calgary, Canada
prior to her bone marrow
transplant as well as
her after-care expenses.
What prompted Dmitri
to initiate this
benevolent project?
Here is his mother
Shannon Rosescu
to explain how it started.

I went to a fundraiser
for Emma (Predinchuk).
And he knew that
I was going to raise money
for a little girl
who was very sick.
She was nine months old
at the time
and needed money
to get better,
“money for her medicine”
was how I explained it.

And a couple of weeks later,
he was drawing pictures
and trying to sell them to us
and the receptionist
at the vet clinic,
and various other people.
When I asked him why
he was selling pictures and
what he needed money for,
he said, “Well,
doesn’t baby Emma
still need her medicine?”
and it snowballed from there.

Dmitri’s two sisters
and several
neighborhood children
have joined him
in his noble endeavor.
Dmitri sells his pictures
for CAD$10 each
and is determined
to “keep on going
until Emma gets better.”

I understand
that you have raised
around CAD$2,700
for baby Emma
who has leukemia
and needs a lot of money
for after-care.
I understand
that you raised money
by painting pictures.
So what kind of pictures
did you paint?
Octopuses,
(a lot of stuff.)

I am sure that
the entire Rosescu family
has been involved with
all of this fundraising, yes?
And perhaps
we could have
the two young ladies say
what they have done
as well for raising money
for the baby.

I am Dmi’s sister Kasia.
I’ve been helping Dmi
draw and paint pictures.
When he started,
I started to think,
“Maybe I should help
along with him.”
So I started
to draw pictures with him
for other people like
the Abominable Snowman
and I drew this girl
in the winter,
and then a princess
for her birthday.

I am Dmi’s older sister,
Julia.
I helped draw
a few pictures.
And me, Kasia and Dmi
and a few friends
had a lemonade stand
which went really well.
We had lots of people
stop by and
just drop off money and
people bought lemonade.
So we raised lots of money.

That’s excellent.
And I understand that
money has been pouring in
from various corners
of North America.

Absolutely.
We’ve been very fortunate.
We’ve received money
all the way
from the East Coast,
Quebec (Canada),
Ontario(Canada)
to BC (British Columbia)
(Canada) and
even North Dakota (USA).
So we’re very fortunate;
it just seemed
to have gone viral
with all these pictures.

And people just kept
passing along the message.
And we’re very grateful
to have all these people
donating money.
And we’re
extremely grateful
that Emma’s doing great.

Most fortunately
Emma got her
bone-marrow transplant
on August 29, 2011.

When we heard that baby
Emma got her transplant,
we were happy
because when we heard that
she was giggling
in her dad’s arms,
we were like,
“Oh, that’s so great!”

I’m sure one of the things
that goes through
every parent’s mind is that,
“Baby Emma could
have been our child.”
And so Shannon,
what is going through
your mind and your heart
as you watch
this whole story unfold?

I am fortunate that
I have four healthy children
and it’s exactly that.
You never know
when cancer can strike
or any sort of disease
or illness.
And our family
has been hit by cancer.
We’ve always had a
tremendous support system
and we felt that Emma
needed our support too.

Dmitri’s leadership skills
were noted early on
by his former
grade one teacher,
Ms. Jan Seitz.

It was only a year ago that
Dmitri entered grade one.
He’s a bright, young,
eager, determined
and athletic six-year-old.
At the very start of the year
we would have
classroom meetings
where students reflected
on the kind of classroom
they wanted to create.
These meetings
frequently referenced
(Mahatma) Gandhi
by asking the students
how they could be
the change that they want
to see in the world,
and it could start here
in this classroom,
and grow throughout
the school and community.

They decided
that a classroom goal
should be that everyone
feels included
and like they belong.
When a hiccup
in the pursuit of meeting
that goal would occur,
we would have meetings
either as a whole group,
small group or one on one.
So Dmi and I had lots of
chats along the way.
I recall asking him
who his heroes were,
and he said (hockey star)
Sydney Crosby.
I asked him to
look out at the classroom
and tell me what he saw.

Now, at that time
there was a boy
sitting all alone and nobody
was playing with him.
He indicated that
he noticed that student.
Then I asked him,
“What would Sydney do
as the leader and captain
of his hockey team?”
And then later,
all on his own, Dmi
went over to the student,
befriended him
and included him in play.
And along the way,
I certainly saw Dmi
become a leader.

You have made a world
of difference to Emma.
What I find interesting is
that, from what I understand,
making pictures wasn’t
even your favorite thing
to do.
Yet, you found a way
to solve a problem and
reach a goal born out of
a compassionate heart
to help Emma, a child
he did not even know
or had not even met.

Dmi, thank you
for teaching us something
about hope,
about determination
and about believing that
all things are possible.
I am very proud of you,
and I know
that all of your teachers
are very proud of you too.
Thanks, Dmitri.

To support
his life-saving cause,
Supreme Master Ching Hai
gifted Dmitri
with CAD$5,000, with
lots of hugs and kisses.
On Supreme Master
Ching Hai’s behalf,
our Association members
presented the funds
to Dmitri
during a ceremony.

So, right now
is our time for a
very special presentation.
And, so Dmitri, if you
could come forward here,
I'd like to present this to you.
Yes, come and stand
right here. Great!
And here is Dmitri's check.
Congratulations!

Emma Predinchuk’s
great aunt, Bonnie Harris
attended the ceremony
and accepted the check
from Dmitri
on Emma’s behalf.

On behalf of Emma
and her parents,
Chris and Anita,
and our entire family,
we would like to say
thank you very much,
Dmitri,
for all you have done.
For someone so young
and a complete stranger,
to give so much of yourself,
through your heart
and your drawings you
have touched our hearts.
When we all needed it
so much, you showed up
and became Emma’s
little guardian angel.

We look forward to
you and Emma meeting
one day very soon.
You’re a very special boy,
Dmitri, and have already
made a difference
in this world.
I’m sure your journey
in helping others
has just begun,
and we are very honored
you have come
into our lives.
I would also like to say
thank you to One Match,
and Emma’s donor.

Without them, Emma’s
transplant wouldn’t
have been possible.
Another complete stranger,
Emma’s gift of life
came from
a 23-year-old young man,
a perfect match.
A big thank you also
to the Alberta Children’s
Hospital staff
for all their wonderful work,
and to everyone
that has supported
and prayed for Emma.

Thank you,
Master Ching Hai,
for your wonderful donation
and for giving Dmitri
the recognition
that he greatly deserves.
Where we don’t think
we’ve had hopes,
we’ve found them.
We didn’t think
that she would even find
a bone-marrow match
and we just prayed
and prayed and
she came up with three.

With so many people
behind her, loving her
and praying for her,
our little princess will
get her chance to dance,
to go to school
and to make a mark
in this world.
Right now Emma,
she’s handled everything
very well and the doctors
are saying everything is
looking very well for her.
I would just like to say
thank you very much
to everybody.

Supreme Master Ching Hai
provided gifts
to Emma and her family,
which were presented by
our Association members
on her behalf.
They were given
Supreme Master Ching Hai’s
books including
“The Realization of Health:
Returning to the Natural
and Righteous Way
of Living,” and the #1
international bestsellers
“The Noble Wilds,” and
“The Birds In My Life”
along with
a vegan recipe book and
one of Supreme Master
Ching Hai’s DVDs.

They’ll have a lot of time
to be doing
a lot of reading to her.

Supreme Master Ching Hai
also sent gifts
for Dmitri and his family,
including her books
“The Love of Centuries,”
“From Crisis to Peace,”
the #1
international bestseller
“The Dogs In My Life”
and others, as well as
a selection of her DVDs.

Just want to say thank you.
Thank you very much
to your organization and
all you wonderful people
for everything,
and it’s amazing.
Dmitri’s biggest supporters
have been people
that we don’t know.
And I think that
that’s wonderful because
we don’t know Emma.
And, you can really build
that sense of family and
community from people
that you’ve never, ever met,
and then you feel like
you’ve known them
your whole lives.
And we just want
to thank you very much
for everything.

Our accolades go to you,
Dmitri Rosescu and
your family and friends,
for your
compassionate hearts and
noble fundraising efforts
for baby Emma.
We also pray
that baby Emma
has a quick recovery
and enjoys
a long, wonderful life
with her family.
Thank you, loving viewers,
for watching
this edition of
Good People, Good Works.
May kindness and love
always be the foundations
of people’s lives.